US to use Espionage Act against WikiLeaks

Washington, Aug 18: United States plan to use the Espionage Act to make the whistle blowing website, WikiLeaks, silent.

The Washington Post reported that the US Justice Department is considering use of the Espionage Act to prevent WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from posting the remaining 15,000 secret war documents.

Espionage Act in US was normally use to arrest suspected spies working for foreign powers. But media reported that the language used in the law was so broad that it has been occasionally used to arrest people with no connection to spying.

WikiLeaks, on July 25, 2010, released about 100 megabytes of internal US military dispatches, which showed the disturbing real picture of the war in Afghanistan. The files were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel.

On Monday, Aug 16, Julian Assange told that the site will not tolerate threats from the US' department of defense and will release the remaining secret data soon.